Apple CEO Jobs takes leave

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced he is taking a medical leave until the end of June.

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A major announcement from a man who can influence the market with a single syllable, Apple founder Steve Jobs says he's going on medical leave. Senior correspondent, medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta this morning, looking into this one. So, Elizabeth, /originally he described the weight loss, the marked weight loss that you could really see is a hormone imbalance. Now he says that actually there could be more to it than that. What else is going on with him?

Well, he still uses that term "hormone imbalance". What he's saying now is that it's gotten bad enough that he is taking a medical leave. He said he wants people to focus on Apple's products not on his health. We ran this by several experts care. We said what could cause a hormone imbalance. And really, there are many different things. Let's take a look at three of them. Cancer can cause a hormone imbalance, as can diabetes, as can liver problems, and can problems with the gastrointestinal system. What we do know is that Steve Jobs has become thinner over the years. Take a look at these two photos. One of them is from 2005 and the other is from 2008. The 2005 one is to the right, the 2008 one is to the left. And you can see in his face that he has lost weight. And let me read a little excerpt from an e-mail that he sent to Apple employees. He wrote "my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought", and he said that's why he is taking a leave of absence till the end of June, Kiran.

He also had pancreatic cancer a few years ago, right? And pancreatic cancer can be deadly, I mean, for many people. Is this a reoccurrence or complication based on that?

You know, he's not said that the pancreatic cancer has come back. He had pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no question that pancreatic cancer, like other cancers, can throw your hormones off balance.

And the survival rate, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 20 percent. That’s, that’s doesn’t look, That doesn't sound like very good odds.

It is particularly low, I mean, he, it is a very, it is a tough cancer. There is no question, but he has survived. He had it in 2003, we’re now in 2009. So he has, he has done better than most people, there is no question.

All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

Thanks.